CRASH! How I Lost a Hundred Billion and Found True Love (Kindle Single)

by Julian Gough

The UK Kindle Single #1 hit.

Jude lives in a henhouse with no roof, that he bought for ten million euro, at the height of the Irish property bubble. One day, his mortgage is rated the debt in Europe most likely to default... The political and financial elite of Europe arrive, with a plan: help Jude put a roof on his henhouse, stabilize his debt, and reassure the markets. It all goes horribly wrong.

"This novella is very funny – laugh-out-loud at times…Gough is one of our most talented satirists" — The Irish Independent

Jude in London

by Julian Gough

Shortlisted for both the Guardian's Not The Booker Prize, and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, Jude in London is an epic, comic exploration of the bizarre love triangle between language, consciousness, and reality. Which is all very well, if you're into that sort of thing.

Jude: Level 1

by Julian Gough

Shortlisted for the 2008 Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.

The novel's prologue won the biggest prize in the world for a single short story - the BBC National Short Story Prize.

"Sheer comic brilliance" - The Times

"The best comic novel I've ever read" - Tommy Tiernan

"Could be the finest comic novel since Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman" - The Sunday Tribune

Juno and Juliet

by Julian Gough

My first novel, of which I am very fond. The adventures of teenage twin sisters Juno & Juliet, in their first year away from home. Life, love and literature, in Galway and Tipperary.

"Like Roddy Doyle in an extremely good mood" - The Washington Post

"A modern, at times brilliantly ironic reworking of the classical fairytale, with nods to Shakespeare, Austen and Beckett." - Literary Review

If you are REALLY disappointed, here's a different free story instead, as a lovely, shiny consolation prize. (It's a comedy about financial bubbles and goats. You might even like it more than the iHole.)

For background, I'll just quote briefly from the original open letter:

"Dear Jonathan,

My name is Julian Gough. I write fiction. And I have a problem that only you can solve.

I recently wrote a short story called The iHole, and I think it’s the best I’ve ever written. It’s about the design of an imaginary product, and it’s set inside a fictional version of Apple, at some time in the near future. A fictional version of you is mentioned, by name, a couple of times, though he stays offstage as a character.

A major media player wants the story. Their editorial people love the story. The potential audience is a million plus. So far, so good. But now their lawyers have asked me to change the name of the fictional company from Apple, and change the name of the character I’ve called Jonathan Ive..."

OK, I put that letter, and the story, online three days ago. This morning, we've all come to a satisfactory resolution. I'm really sorry if you came here to read The iHole and are disappointed. It will be available (legally) again later this year, honest.

First, I want to say thanks to everyone - Minecraft fans, fiction fans - on Twitter and elsewhere, for their support, encouragement (and even editorial suggestions), over the past three days.

And second, I want to say that THERE ARE NO VILLAINS in what's just happened. Apple behaved perfectly, and the media organisation wanting to use The iHole behaved perfectly, as did their lawyers. I'm not mad at anyone and I don't want you to be mad at anyone. if there was a problem here, it was with archaic laws that make it hard for writers to write about the modern world.

In fact, I particularly want to defend the media organisation involved. There are precious few media outlets for short stories already, so the last thing these guys deserve is to be kicked for having the courage to take on an unusually tricky modern story like mine. They have behaved impeccably throughout, attempting to keep the story intact while still obeying the law.

My attempts to sort this out directly, by going over their heads, have almost certainly made their lives more difficult, for which I apologize. There's always a healthy creative tension between the artist and the industry, but I realize I generate a lot more tension than most. Sorry, everyone...

Finally, I'm happy that we seem to have sorted out a compromise that doesn't damage the story artistically. And I'm very happy to discover that such large numbers of people can still get excited, and passionate, over a short story.